Appreciating the Smooth Stretches: Appreciating the Smooth Stretches

Title: Appreciating the Smooth Stretches
Author: Nyarlathotep
Fandom: Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Pairing/s: Phoenix Wright/Miles Edgeworth (hints of Apollo/Klavier)
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: fluff, reminiscence, nudity, frot, large bodies of water, romance
Disclaimer: N makes no money from writing yaoi fanfic. Characters belong to CAPCOM
Notes: I guess this is technically a "sequel" to Out In The Open but lets just call it "another one in the series" instead. Also, my headcannon is similar in many ways to some other PW writers. This is not idea theft. I just came up with some of the same conclusions about what might have happened in the lives of the characters, reasons they might not be around, and so on. Additionally I don't think I made it obvious enough in this, that I don't believe that Phoenix and Kristoph were sexually involved over the seven years that Phoenix was disbarred. I like to think that Miles and Phoenix were really together the whole time, just maybe not on the same continent all the time... aaaand I might not have made it clear enough that Apollo and Klavier are together or that Apollo is a partner in the firm Miles is thinking about in this fic (the same one they're discussing at the end of OITO). Oh well... *fail*

 

“I honestly can’t believe we’re finally here together.” The voice drifting in from their balcony called his attention away from the task of unpacking and Miles huffed, getting to his feet with a groan as his back popped audibly. He turned towards the open French doors, smiling into the warm breeze that wafted through the light sheer curtains.

 

“Why is that, Wright?” Picking up a moisture beaded glass carafe, Miles poured two glasses of ice water with lemon slices and carried them toward the open door. “I’ve already told you, I’m well past being embarrassed by your appalling lack of decorum when we’re in public…” He moved out into the slanted orange sunlight, smirking as the attorney chuckled good naturedly at his teasing, leaning back on the railing and pushing his comically large aviator sun glasses up on top of his head.

 

“Now, now… you know everyone wants this.” Phoenix gestured to his body with an exaggerated sweep of his arm and Miles did allow his eyes to follow its path downward, the chill glasses in his hands sweating rivulets of condensation which trickled down his to his elbows as he appraised the man before him, frowning dramatically.

 

The attorney’s gray t-shirt was tight over his lightly defined chest and stomach and around his biceps. It proclaimed ARMY in large bold letters and alarmingly, it rather suited the olive cargo shorts he wore. Down further- long legs, toned from bicycling and…

 

“…Wright… What are… those…”

 

“Huh?” The attorney glanced down and then grinned sheepishly, lifting one foot and then the other to flap the purple foam rubber soles against his heels, wiggling his toes around the canvas and rubber strap between them. The flip flops were bright violet in color and covered with silver stars and guitars. They were also a couple sizes too small, leaving Phoenix’s heels to hang over the backs. “Er… Yeah, I didn’t have any, so I borrowed these from Apollo… but I suspect that they’re actually Klavier’s.” He concluded, rubbing the back of his head and flashing that grin again.

‘You suspect…?’ Miles just shook his head and handed over one of the glasses, which was enthusiastically accepted and drained with yet more of that “lack of decorum” that he teased the other man with so frequently. Miles smirked into the rim of the glass, sipping his water delicately. “You’re right though… I thought that blasted trial would never end.” He sighed uncomfortably, glancing away over Phoenix’s shoulder to the blue water of the ocean beyond and noting how similar in color Phoenix’s eyes appeared, in the summer evening sunlight, sparkling with mystery in the depths but warm like the sun heated shallows; a place to relax… or maybe to drown…

 

“You did great Miles… You were amazing…” His head was carefully turned by the warmth of Phoenix’s fingertips against his tense jaw and he accepted the press of cool, lemon flavored lips as gratefully as Phoenix had taken the water glass, pulling back after a long moment and setting his own glass aside in order to draw the other attorney towards him by the shoulders and kiss him again.

 

By the time they parted next, the ice in their glasses was melted and they had missed the best part of the sunset but neither of them cared.

 

Phoenix led him back inside then and after hastily stripping, lay beneath him, crying out his name and welting his back with blunt fingernails as Miles happily took the attorney up on his offer to help him work out a little residual “first trial” anxiety.

 

Admittedly the courtroom process had been very similar to that which he had been accustomed in his days as a prosecutor, except for the jurists and that was nothing new to Miles since he’d been involved in that project on the academic side… And it was technically not his first time at the defense bench but it had been his first legitimate trial, one where he had not been merely impersonating a defense attorney.

 

And he’d won... He’d believed in his client and he had won.

 

Relief always proved to be a strange kind of aphrodisiac, as events in their lives continued to remind them both, over the years.

 

“Hey Miles… let’s go down to the beach…” Phoenix’s murmur was soft against his ear and he stirred blearily from the light doze they had fallen into, tangled in a crisp white sheet together. The crickets were still chirping beyond the open doors and the summer night air was warm and inviting, despite it being nearly eleven o’ clock.

 

“Mmmm… Alright.” He was in an agreeable mood, relaxed and drowsy still from sex and his light post-orgasm nap. A walk along the stretch of private beach in front of the bed and breakfast they were staying at sounded pleasant enough, especially considering they were currently the only guests.

 

Their suite had private beach access by way of a winding wooden staircase off the deck that lead fifty feet or so down a rocky slope to the shore and they made their way slowly downwards, after lazily slipping back into just enough clothing to be decent for any insects or raccoons they might meet along the way.

 

Here, the Pacific crashed endlessly against a jetty several hundred yards out, doing little more than ripple their sheltered bay with the coming and going tide. Far from the city and it’s light pollution, the stars shone like bright tin nails hammered into indigo silk and the nearly full moon illuminated everything with the kind of ethereal ambiance that was only supposed to exist in works of romance fiction.

 

“We did it Miles…” Phoenix’s voice sounded a little lost and wistful, soft against the background noise of clashing surf on distant rocks and when Miles turned his head to regard the other attorney he could detect a wet shimmer in his eyes and a slight smile on his lips. They were loitering on the last platform, leaning over the railing and looking out to sea for a while before descending to the sand.

 

“We did.” He agreed, sliding one arm around Phoenix’s lower back and tugging him closer. The possibility of beginning a defense firm together as partners was something they had talked about many times over the long years it had taken for all the plans and investigations concerning Kristoph Gavin and the Mishams to finally bear their twisted tragic fruit… as they took what time they could find together when he was in the US, hiding out in Kurain where Trucy could be easily entertained by Pearl or looked after by Maya, where they could pretend for a while that everything was normal. They talked and planned and held together each other’s hope, crushing doubts and despair with soft promises and softer touches. That Phoenix would get his badge back at the end of this, was something neither of them even questioned… It was a given.

 

Miles observed that Kristoph had never appeared to perceive him as much of a threat for some reason and seemed almost unaware of his existence, beyond encouraging Phoenix to avoid contact with him as he initially sought to isolate the bereft ex-attorney from all the members of his support structure, but it had not taken very long, with the Magatama, to discover that Kristoph was up to something, even if they didn’t have any idea in the beginning, just how deep it went.

 

Perhaps, if Phoenix had been a normal man… with normal friends… If Kristoph had just had a normal apprentice… a normal brother… a gift for poker… he might have gotten away with it all. But it was far- far too late for that man now… if indeed there was anything left of him at all.

 

Miles shivered and Phoenix’s drew him a little closer, turning to face him and question his eyes silently in the moonlight. “You’re thinking about the past again, stop it.” He smiled when their noses bumped together, meeting Phoenix’s lips with an apologetic sound. He was right of course; dwelling on the past and things one cannot change was the worst kind of self indulgent nonsense, especially when Miles had finally attained everything he had always desired, deep down… to become a great defense attorney like his father and to be near Phoenix Wright again.

 

They laughed when their bare feet hit the still warm sand, curling their toes into the soft grains and threading their fingers together. His heart beat fast when they ran from the low encroaching waves, squealing like children as it caught their ankles, dragging the sand from beneath their scrabbling feet.

 

“Swim?” The playful lilt in Phoenix’s voice made him shiver but was he really suggesting they…? However, before Miles could even level a skeptical look at the other attorney, the shameless man was already unfastening his shorts. Miles glanced nervously up and down the deserted moonlit shore before shrugging and slipping out of his linen slacks, lacing his fingers back together with Phoenix’s once they were both nude and running into the low surf with a whoop of joyous abandon.

 

Part of him would always be ten years old when he was with Phoenix… light and innocent and idyllic and free…

 

The shallows were cool and refreshing and when they resurfaced, laughing and soaked and salty, they were almost instantly entangled, fingers working into dripping, moon-silvered hair, squeaking against moist shoulders, mouths locked together and tasting the sea mixed with their desire for one another.

 

It was an oddly pleasant sensation, growing hard beneath the cool water. Pressed against Phoenix’s belly, all he could feel was an alternation of chill from the ocean mixed with the heat from Phoenix’s body, curling eddies of varying temperatures caressing him like tiny fingers. He shuddered when the man moved against him, groaning, seeking his salty lips with a primal kind of desperation.

 

The mighty Pacific Ocean… It was the very edge of their world they were bathing in and even this quiet inlet still surged with the power of the abyss. They felt it in their thrumming bodies, hearts pounding with the distant surf as they rocked together in time with the undulating waves.

 

It was Phoenix who first moved to encircle them with his hand, providing more of that disconcerting temperature interaction as well as some welcome friction and Miles found himself arching wantonly against the other, just as he always did, his body begging for more of that touch. He wrapped his legs about Phoenix’s waist, easily supporting himself in their near weightless environment and ground into his hand, making them both gasp.

 

“Ah… Miles…” Phoenix curled into him, panting against the side of his neck as he thrust upwards, tightening his hand and rubbing them feverishly together. Miles was panting too, digging his nails into the attorney’s back as a shuddering flush of heat began to suffuse through his lower belly and pool hotly in his groin and Phoenix was shaking in his arms, throbbing against him and touching- touching- touching…

‘I never meant to hurt you… any of the times I did…’

 

“Ah- God, Phoenix…”

‘You saved me… even when I didn’t believe I needed anybody…’

 

“Miles I- nghh…“

‘And we made it.’

 

“Please- I-I’m… Ah- Phoenix!”

‘I adore you.’

 

It was crazy, the things Phoenix had always been able to make him feel… make him admit… make him need… It took Phoenix to make him even realize he had been deprived. Phoenix had awakened him from his torpor of stagnant tradition and meaningless routine, breathed life back into his existence, granted him peace from his guilt and, by unselfish example, rallied him to carry on through anything, to never- ever give up.

 

The Demon Prosecutor was long dead but Miles Edgeworth lived… because of Phoenix Wright.

 

Buoyed by the saltwater they drifted, toes barely touching the shifting sands until a small breaker landed them in the shallows and Phoenix lay him gently back against the wet beach, the ocean again placidly lapping about their lower bodies, creeping up slowly with the returning tide. They paid little attention though, as the waves broke around them, each solely focused on the other, embracing for a long moment in the shifting sands and just breathing each other in.

 

In time, they came back to themselves, rinsing the sand from their bodies and gathering their discarded clothing, ascending somewhat wearily to their suite and shower and comfortable bed. In a few days they would probably both be working on new cases so they intended to enjoy this down-time thoroughly while it lasted; to properly celebrate the auspicious beginning of Miles' new career in criminal defense.

 

He couldn’t help but reflect on how differently he had felt coming out of his first victory as a defense lawyer than after any of his wins as a prosecutor. Before, his victories had always just been affirmations of the corruption he then felt must saturate the entire world. Each win was simply proof of the guilt he had always suspected lay within the defendants, and even within himself. But now… after really defending someone and proving their innocence… the elation of saving someone else and determining the truth… Well, he had now begun to understand the desire to celebrate that Wright and crew seemed to always experience after a decisive victory for justice and innocence; much more than he had ever felt over the victory scotch which he indulged himself in solitude, after proving someone’s guilt.

 

A long and twisted road like theirs didn’t really ever get less hazardous to travel, but you learned, over time, to drive carefully and to take in the scenery and enjoy good weather and you learned about letting go your fear of the unknown and about taking the bumps and breakdowns in stride… and about appreciating the smooth stretches, priceless vistas and long, pleasant straight-aways.

 

~end~